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Class 800 - Updates


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Seen here on 11 December during its final week of operation is 1P20, 09.23 Reading - Paddington pulling into Twyford where a good load of passengers are waiting to join.  This train called only at Twyford, Maidenhead, and Slough and was timed for a Class 387 but has been worked by an IET (usually 9 car) for at least the past few months.   It ceases to run from tomorrow and will be replaced by a Crossrail Class 345 leaving Twyford 1 minute earlier and arriving at Paddington 9 minutes later - that natives are not happy!

 

615522289_DSCF1025copy.jpg.40aef93f682399b203e1d5d07702f4f1.jpg

 

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On 13/12/2019 at 06:29, Zomboid said:

SWR is still mostly in the attractive and cheerful Stagecoach colours, though the uninspiring dark blue interiors are spreading across the 444/ 450/ 159 stock.

 

At least the seats on the 450s on the Waterloo - Reading services are not like bl**dy ironing boards!

 

John

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On ‎13‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 06:29, Zomboid said:

SWR is still mostly in the attractive and cheerful Stagecoach colours, though the uninspiring dark blue interiors are spreading across the 444/ 450/ 159 stock.

The blue seats in the 159s are really comfy, though, and the wipe-clean headrest sections should have been there from day one.  The red fabric has always been prone to staining in that area. I also find the darker interior nicely relaxing on longer trips.

 

While I'm enjoying those aspects, the exterior finish is ignored, though the SWR colours have grown on me and (IMHO) the toothpaste livery is beginning to look dated and often somewhat faded, though it still seems bright in comparison with the more muted new finish. 

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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On 16/12/2019 at 09:17, JJGraphics said:

 

At least the seats on the 450s on the Waterloo - Reading services are not like bl**dy ironing boards!

 

John

450s to Reading?  You'll be lucky.  There is still one 450 duty I believe but the majority are 458s with rather comfortable seats.  There is also one 455 duty to Reading and while their seats aren't too bad they are very much suburban stock on what has sometimes been considered a main line.  Just wait a year or so until everything is replaced by 701s; the seats on those are yet to be sampled but are likely to be of the same ilk as all other recent types.

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1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

I wonder if an Azuma will inherit the Flying Scotsman nameplates either new or from the class 91 bearing them.

Does that mean in years to come when the 800s are withdrawn that the NRM will get it to help collect dust

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19 minutes ago, 25901 said:

Does that mean in years to come when the 800s are withdrawn that the NRM will get it to help collect dust

NRM already has an “Azuma”.. theyve had it for a decade or more. :-) no need for duplication.

That Japanese donation to the UK paid nice dividends it would seem.

 

imagine if ours had nose cones like these though...D07D3A7B-726D-443D-8697-E82677486C7D.jpeg.1ee50c2fe3bd6ac5f5c84b9b8b746773.jpeg
note the overhang... the signal is visible on the platform to the top right... most of the nose is “hovering”... beyond it.

 

I did suggest to the NRM that they could return the favour by giving Japans oldest steam loco, built in the UK, a set of vac pipes...
49C0FFCB-143F-4A27-9A8D-F10E56DEAB5E.jpeg.5fa4aefd25ce4a0219ff35e7562c9fb8.jpeg


yes the nose cone is definitely longer than that 0-6-0.

 

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19 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

450s to Reading?  You'll be lucky.  There is still one 450 duty I believe but the majority are 458s with rather comfortable seats.  There is also one 455 duty to Reading and while their seats aren't too bad they are very much suburban stock on what has sometimes been considered a main line.  Just wait a year or so until everything is replaced by 701s; the seats on those are yet to be sampled but are likely to be of the same ilk as all other recent types.

 

Yes, that was a typo on my part. We'll see about the 701s in due course.

 

John

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We have an interesting, and useful (for some) development in GWR's new timetable with what amounts to a late evening hourly service from Paddington to the GWR owned stations between Paddington and Reading (i.e. Slough, Maidenhead, & Twyford) on either Oxford or Bedwyn trains.   We used the slightly delayed 21.15 ex Paddington yesterday evening returning from a carol service in London and it was well loaded - as could be expected of a train which offers connections to all the Thames Valley branches with some of the shortest overall journey times of the day.  

 

Definitely knocks Crossrail into a cocked hat - which is perhaps part of GWR's game plan,  as Mrs Stationmaster observed when we passed a couple of 345s on our way to Twyford.

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So the apparently Dawlish proof IETs are not so Dawlish proof...both 1A82 and 1C75 lost all GUs earlier after being struck by waves.

1A82 managed to coast to Starcross where it was rescued by the front set off 1C76, 1C75 was at Dawlish  and got going again running ECS.

Oh dear.

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I have avoided commenting so far as I had not ridden on a GWR 800. Surely, they could not be as bad as reported here.

 

So interesting to find that the first train on offer to me at Ledbury (£11.50 Parking!) was a Hereford - Paddington which I rode as far as Worcester Foregate St (no guidance from the guard as to whether I should change there or at Shrub Hill).

 

The train was dreadful. Noisy, dull décor and uncomfortable seats. I actually prefer hardish seats but they have to be the right shape. I would certainly not have been wanting to go all the way to Paddington which must be a long journey with stops at every station to Oxford.

 

Can it really make sense to use these expensive assets so inefficiently at low speeds?

 

My trip to Nottingham and back involved three trains outwards, two trains back. Not a single ticket inspection with even the barriers at BNS open.

 

PS: I forgot to mention that when we hit a poor section of jointed track, my glutes got a most unexpected massage!

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On 19/12/2019 at 16:23, SouthernMafia said:

So the apparently Dawlish proof IETs are not so Dawlish proof...both 1A82 and 1C75 lost all GUs earlier after being struck by waves.

1A82 managed to coast to Starcross where it was rescued by the front set off 1C76, 1C75 was at Dawlish  and got going again running ECS.

Oh dear.

Point of order, it has NEVER been stated that the IETs are Dawlish PROOF, only that they were Dawlish RESISTANT.

 

My various questions about what the difference was has remained unanswered but I think we now have an answer.

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Dawlish can be very wet and wild.  But most loco-hauled trains backalong got through unless the line itself was blocked.  HSTs and even the widely-loathed Pacers normally got through.  The problem seems to be the more complex the hardware the more there is to go wrong and the more sensitive it is to anything upsetting it.  May we please apply KISS to future builds?  

 

Comments about using IETs on the Cotswold line where nearly all trains now stop at nearly all stations (the diminutive Combe, Finstock and Shipton excepted) reminds me that they are also now used for locals to Bedwyn.  Both of those services have sprints up and down the Thames Valley but for only 25 minutes or so out of the journey.   The Cotswold (nee Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton or Old Worse and Worser) has long been a pedestrian service on a secondary route with most stations served out of necessity.  

 

Using IETs, of which there are apparently too few to reliably run the timetabled service, on Paddington - Bedwyn trains which are largely for the very local needs of quite modest numbers of customers through the Kennet Valley and which are paralleled by a good many other trains between Reading and London, does seem excessive and somewhat hard to justify.  They are even advertised as offering trolley refreshments.  If that service is provided they will be doing better than some Penzance trains which continue (especially at weekends) to be devoid of any form of catering for 5-6 hours.  

 

Even allowing for the post-electrification rolling stock shuffle it should not be beyond the bounds of possibility to run the Bedwyns with a 166 and release IETs for where the need is greater.  The fact that they run stopping services to Hereford is a legacy.  The route has been served by the same stock as has operated on faster main lines for many years though for a time the HST / Adelante services were limited to a few trips with others offering a 165 / 166 Turbo instead.  Just as a couple of trips still do.  There is no other realistic option.  At least the length of the journey justifies the provision of main line stock which cannot be argued for the Bedwyn services.  

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Allegedly, tonight's 18:04 Penzance train sat at Paddington with its complement of passengers for an hour awaiting train crew, followed by a fix for something engineering related - with no information for the passengers - who were eventually downcast after they saw the 19:05 to Penzance leave ahead of them, the 18:04 then being cancelled.

 

Not sure what's happened to the passengers as, save for the sleeper, that was it for the evening as far as Cornwall was concerned.

 

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/PAD/to/PNZ/2019-12-20/1700-2000?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

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18.04 started from Exeter St. Davids and possibly formed of a 150 off the depot there.  RTT also shows that there was a 1Z92 intended to run at 19.25 (1C92 the 18.04 revised) but this too has been cancelled.  

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With the new timetable intensity, I doubt anything limited to 90mph would be regularly allowed on the fast lines from Reading to Paddington. And on the slows they'd need to make quite a few stops or catch up with Crossrail trains making their slow trundle.

 

The real solution should have been electrification and 110mph EMUs for the Bedwyn trains. Why you'd finish the electrification short of where the suburban service ends is beyond me.

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The 1C92/1Z92 incident this evening was a farce. Train crew delayed on inward, then there was some door problem which couldn't be resolved. Solution was to split sets and recouple. That didn't work either. Eventually the whole rigmarole went on for so long they cancelled it, not before the 19:05 had left.

So another solution was to split the sets again and run as 1Z92 to Exeter for the punters. They then couldn't split the sets. Cancelled and ECS to North Pole. Doh!

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